Watch this video for a comprehensive overview of Bitcoin network decentralization and the measures being taken. It's essential for anyone involved in the field, especially investors.

https://youtu.be/jFfzsEj6z6c?si=JU5LpkgyWE_Z-Ll2

Key takeaways below.

1. Solo-mining isn't profitable. Pooled mining is the only way forward. This is detrimental to decentralisation as the number of pools have reduced over time to only about 12 unique entities in total.

2. There's a tremendous amount of intermediate steps that go into mining. This includes deciding which transactions get included in the next block as well as the type (block template), actually performing the hashing function and distributing rewards (and refunds) to name some.

3. Pool owners currently decide about a lot of these important aspects and and not the miners who provide the hashing function. The miners are only aware of what they've mined *after* the block has been mined and they know only then whether they spent their effort profitably.

4. The transaction fee based rewards system puts more trust into the hands of the pool owners as there's no way for miners to know how much they were supposed to be paid by the pool for the work they have done.

5. Pools will also have the new coins minted flow through them for distribution, so this makes things much worse for #decentralisation.

There has been a prevailing belief that #bitcoin, being the most decentralized system, is immune to control from any group. However, blind faith can be detrimental. Like any other system, it requires vigilance to identify and address problems that may arise from time to time.